Physiotherapy is the healthcare field responsible for helping patients prevent or recover from injuries resulting from fractures, malformations, and behavioral habits. Various movement and massage techniques are used to restore the patient’s physical capacity.

However, during sessions, complications in the patient’s treatment may occur. It is common for them to be in a state of chronic pain, which can leave people emotionally unstable or in a problematic state, making sessions difficult.

A tool that can help physiotherapists deal with these difficulties is clinical hypnosis. If you want to know how this can happen, read our article carefully.

The benefits of hypnosis in physiotherapy

When the patient is in pain, they suffer not only physically but emotionally as well. They feel anxiety, fear, anger, anguish, sadness, among other emotions, which can promote dysfunctional thoughts that intensify their pain. Therefore, the patient needs to undergo an assessment to know how they should be treated that day. It is in these situations that the physiotherapist has the advantage of knowing how to use clinical hypnosis.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), with small considerations from the Brazilian Society of Hypnosis (SBH), hypnosis can be defined as a state of consciousness [intentionally induced] that involves focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness, characterized by an increased capacity for response to suggestion. In this state, the subject is led to experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, or behavior [goal-oriented].

Thus, the patient undergoing treatment with the aid of clinical hypnosis can combat dysfunctional thoughts during consultations and help alter the patient’s perceptions of their pain. Therefore, hypnosis in physiotherapy helps the patient focus during consultations, aids communication between the professional and the patient, and helps reduce levels of anxiety, stress, and fear.

Clinical hypnosis in physiotherapy enhances the professional’s assistance to the patient and can even increase the chances of positive results in rehabilitations. Now see below, some evidence of hypnosis for these situations.

Evidence that hypnosis can be used in physiotherapy

According to the article published in EM, Hypnosis and physiotherapy, hypnosis affects the subconscious, which is the center of emotions, habits, and automatisms. The subconscious transmits commands to the unconscious mind, which in turn translates these emotions into feelings and somatic reactions. 

In parallel, the neurophysiology of hypnotic suggestion is currently well-defined, as is the brain permeability associated with increased regional cerebral blood flow in the brain’s attentional system. Additionally, positive expectation and the labeling of “hypnosis” seem to have remarkable effects on the procedure’s effectiveness.

Randomized controlled clinical trials have demonstrated effectiveness in general pain, tension headaches and migraines, temporomandibular pain, chronic lower back pain, osteoarthritis, and bone and joint pain, fibromyalgia, regional pain syndrome, phantom limb pain, sports rehabilitation, irritable bowel syndrome, stress and anxiety, and many other pathologies. Hypnosis is a powerful and very useful tool in daily physiotherapy.

Another piece of evidence is the study published in Pub.Med that demonstrates a successful case. Patients undergoing CRPS-1 (Type 1 complex regional pain syndrome) in the wrists and hands were satisfied or very satisfied when they had physical therapy with clinical hypnosis.

In the Journal of Novel Physiotherapies, there is another piece of evidence stating that among the many diseases treated successfully, some are within the classic competence of the physiotherapist, such as pains of different types, origins, and degrees, from headaches to back pain, from oncological to pediatric pain, from acute to chronic pain.

It is possible to reduce recovery time after injuries and post-surgery. But the field of application of hypnosis in rehabilitation does not stop here. With hypnosis, it is possible to intervene in the reconstruction of the motor image in the patient and in sports. It is also possible to work on the internal image in neurological disorders and strongly influence the motivation behind the therapeutic process.

Furthermore, the use of hypnosis in physiotherapy is regulated by Resolution No. 380/2010 of COFFITO. Article 1 – Authorize the practice by the Physiotherapist of complementary acts to their regulated professional exercise, under the terms of this resolution and MS ordinance number 971/2006:

a) Phytotherapy;

b) Body, Manual, and Meditative Practices

c) Flower Therapy;

d) Magnetotherapy

e) Anthroposophic Physiotherapy;

f) Thermalism/Crenotherapy/Balneotherapy

g) Hypnosis.

Therefore, hypnosis is a complementary tool that can be a differentiator for physiotherapists in the market and in the quality of their services for their patients. If you are interested in becoming a hypnotherapist, just seek training from institutions with modern and internationally used methodologies, such as the Brazilian Society of Hypnosis.

If you are interested in reading more in-depth about hypnosis, download our free materials now!

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